Pain Hustlers

Pain Hustlers is a 2023 American crime drama film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Wells Tower. It is based on the 2022 book of the same name by Evan Hughes. The film stars Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy García, Catherine O'Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d'Arcy James, and Chloe Coleman. Its plot centers on a high school dropout who lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical company in Central Florida, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy. Pain Hustlers had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023, and was released in select theaters in the United States on October 20, 2023, before its streaming debut by Netflix on October 27, 2023. Plot Liza Drake is a struggling single mother working as an exotic dancer in Florida while raising her teenage daughter Phoebe and dealing with Phoebe's father who lives in Savannah. After meeting Pete Brenner at her club and having a friendly and casual conversation, he offers her a job paying $100,000 per year. Later, Liza is called into her daughter's school when her daughter and her friends are suspended for starting a fire near the campus. Liza takes Phoebe and her niece home, where she's living out of her sister's garage. After an argument about money her sister kicks her out and Liza and Phoebe move into a motel. After her car is towed from the motel, Liza tracks down Pete to his office to take him up on his job offer. Unbeknownst to her, the pharmaceutical company he works for, Zanna, is failing and they're desperately attempting to sell the company before they reach bankruptcy. Pete looks at Liza's resume and forges a more impressive curricula vitae, claiming she has a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. He then takes her to meet the founder of the company, Doctor Jack Neel, who hires her immediately despite the company being on an apparent hiring freeze. Pete gives her a five-day probation to convince a major physician to prescribe their marquee drug, Lonafen.